Thanks to “Wicked” ­— the celebrated musical prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” now marking its 10th anniversary on Broadway — author L. Frank Baum’s witches (wicked and otherwise) are getting plenty of stage work these days.

And yet the original “Wizard” saga, while still one of the most beloved movie musicals of all time, has kept a relatively low profile when it comes to live theater.

“There are a lot of people who’ve never seen ‘The Wizard of Oz’ onstage,” says Steven Glaudini, who’s in his inaugural season as artistic director of Moonlight Stage Productions in Vista. “I’ve heard from a lot of people who’ve never (seen it done).”

That’s certainly not for lack of effort on Glaudini’s part: He has produced the musical twice before at other Southern California theaters. Now he brings it to Moonlight, in a production directed and choreographed by Roger Castellano, with musical direction by Elan McMahan.

It’ll be a sprawling staging, with some 40 cast members and a 20-piece orchestra. (While the ensemble includes about 20 kids, all the lead roles are being played by adults.)

And the musical’s story of finding (and saying farewell to) home and friends has extra poignancy for Glaudini this time around. Two Moonlight favorites, actors Nils Anderson and John Bisom, have passed away since they appeared in those previous “Wizard” productions for Glaudini. (Anderson ­­— father of Glaudini’s best friend Eric Anderson, who’s now a Broadway regular — played the Wizard; Bisom was Glaudini’s go-to Scarecrow.)

The pain of those losses is one reason Glaudini wanted to start anew with “Wizard”; the Moonlight production will go with a version developed by England’s Royal Shakespeare Company that sticks more closely to the movie.

Its cast includes San Diego-area favorites Randall Dodge (who starred in Moonlight's excellent, just-closed "South Pacific") as the Cowardly Lion and Jim Chovick as the Wizard, plus the Broadway-tour veteran Stephen Petrovich as Scarecrow, and Carlin Castellano (seen last year at Moonlight in “Fiddler on the Roof”) as Dorothy.

Glaudini also promises there’ll be plenty of pyrotechnics and, of course, flying. (Witches and monkeys and munchkins? Oh my.)